Save maps as image?

[EinBein]

Hi everyone,

is there any possibility to save a map as image other than making a screenshot (which is very difficult with huge maps)?

Many thanks in advance!

[aliasmask]

I think there was a method before b87, but I think it was buggy or something and I don't see the option in b87. I recently ran in to this dilemma when creating a new map. I like the ease of manipulation with objects, but when drawing portions of the map, the transitions really suck. Also, the textures don't scale or rotate. I was thinking about putting down some base patterns then editing the map to clean it up, but I found it tedious to screen shot a 4000x4000 map.

One possible solution to make the process easier is to write a macro that will position the screen for multiple screen shots. Using ctrl-alt-enter for full screen, selecting "measure distance along path" to remove palette and setting a function key for a macro to move snap shot areas around. I'm sure there is some free software out there that would combine multiple images without having to manually align the borders. I'm thinking XnView will be able to do that given you set all margins and borders to 0 when creating a contact sheet. You may have to play with the part names to get them in the right order.

[Phergus]

Or you could use the Export Screenshot... option from the File menu.

This gives you the option of the current view or entire map and allows you to select layers. It can be kind of finicky but I've used it a number of times with success.

[aliasmask]

Or you could use the Export Screenshot... option from the File menu.

This gives you the option of the current view or entire map and allows you to select layers. It can be kind of finicky but I've used it a number of times with success.

Oh, that's where it is. I was looking under map. That worked really well... maybe next time I'll use that.

[EinBein]

Oh good. I didn't know that...

Thanks!

[Oriet]

Oh, that's a nice feature to know about. That will certainly give me more options for creating maps, and since I've also learnt that the drawing tool can use textures it will be better than the few (free) online map making apps I found.

[Jazlizard]

I have a lot of issue having my objects show up. Drawings show up just fine, but if I have a lot of objects, it seems to not want to export them. Any ideas? I don't get any errors, and sometimes it exports fine.

My maps are pretty big, but I allocate a lot of memory to maptools.

[Phergus]

It's a known bug. No idea why it works sometimes and others not.

You might try exporting the map to an .rpmap file, import that into a new campaign with only that map and see what happens.

[Jazlizard]

Yes, that seems to work. It seems as though it only works temporarily though, for example, if I then let the map sit, or move around the map, zoom in, zoom out etc, and then try it again for a second time... it doesn't work. It's like something about loading the images/map fresh for the first time causes it to work, but then when the images are cached? maybe? It doesn't.

Not sure. Also I did run into the, objects that are placed in the negative numbers in the err... Y axis? Don't render too. Saw a separate post about that, and wanted to say that I've also experienced it.

In the meantime, does anyone recommend a program (preferably a free one) that is comparable or better to what maptools lets you do to create maps?

Thanks!

[aliasmask]

Yeah, I recently exported a screenshot and for some reason it left out 2 objects. In the upper right corner are 5 more-or-less identical rooms. The top 2 rooms are missing the desks which are identical objects to the desks in the other rooms. Everything else seems to be there. I was thinking maybe because they were not snapped to grid that the footprint fell outside the bounds of capture, but I checked the snap and they are inside.

In order for the capture to work "properly" with the correct things showing, I set the map to no vision so it will show all the exposed FOW areas and captured it as a player. As you can see, there's not that many objects and there are many duplicates (with different names).

My thought is the image capture thinks those 2 objects are out of bounds for whatever reason. I can't think of any other special relation to the capture area and those 2 objects other than that.

• Screenshot

[TheFemGm]

Hello, new to maptools but loving it so far. (Unfortunately I discovered this AFTER fantasy Grounds II)but I am having an issue with Screenshots as well. I export them but the resulting image is so extremely low rez as to be useless. Its a blurred mess not even recognizable as the starmap I am working on.


If this is covered in a FAQ, I could not find it. Thanks!